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# Preferences

The Xfce panel preferences dialog gives you the ability to customize your panel. You can change the size, appearance, and orentation of your panels. You can also add or remove extra panels on your desktop.

Panel Preferences Dialog

## Accessing Panel Preferences

The panel preferences can be opened by going to Settings ▸ Panel in your applications menu. You can also access panel preferences by right clicking on your panel and going to Panel Settings. If you right click on space occupied by a panel plugin, you can access panel preferences by going to Panel ▸ Panel Settings.

## Selecting a panel

You can select a panel from the dropdown list at the top of the dialog. Next to this are two buttons that can be used to remove (-) the currently selected panel or add (+) a new empty panel.

The panel selected in the dialog should also show a slection around the panel, so it is clear which panel you are editing.

## Display

This tab hold the settings how the panel is positioned on the screen.

### General

Orientation

  Set the panel orientation to horizontal or vertical.

Output

  Select the output (such as an secondary monitor) on which this panel should appear. If the output is not connected, the panel will not be shown.

Span monitors

  If you have multiple monitors connected to the computer, this option will appear in the properties dialog. This will tell the panel to stretch across multiple monitors instead of only being restricted to one monitor. This tells the panel to look at the total screen size instead of the size of an individual monitor.

Lock panel

  Don't show the handles on the panel which allow you to move the panel. When this option is disabled, you can drag the panel anywhere you want on your screen. The panel will also snap to the edges of your screen.

Automatically show and hide the panel

  Automatically hide the panel if the mouse is not hovering over it.

### Measurements

Size

  Change the height (or width if the orientation is vertical) of the panel. The size is in pixels.

Length

  Change the width (or height if the orientation is vertical) of the panel. The size is a percentage of the monitor or screen size.

Automatically increase length

  Increase the panel size to fit the contents of the panel. Is work with expanding plugins, like the window buttons plugins.

## Appearance

This tab contains the style settings of the currently selected panel.

### Background

Style

  This allows you to change the transparency, color, and background image of the panel. You have three options to choose from.

  None (user system style)

    The panel inherits colors from the currently selected GTK+ theme. You can view and change the current GTK+ theme by going to Settings ▸ Appearance.

  Solid Color

    You can select a color using the provided color picker. The color you select will be applied to the panel.

  Background Image

    Select a background for your panel.

Alpha

  Change the alpha transparency of the panel. Some panel plugins may still retain a non-transparent backgound. This option is only available if your panel style is set to None or Solid Color.

Color

  Clicking this activates a color picker. You can select a color by using the color wheel, entering a hex value, or entering a color name. This option is only available if your panel style is set to Solid Color.

File

  This allows you to select a background for the panel using a file browser. This option is only available if your panel style is set to Background Image.

### Opacity

Enter

  This controls the transparency of the panel when a mouse pointer is not hovering over it. Ranges from 0 (fully transparent) and 100 (fully opaque). All panel plugins will be affected by this setting.

Leave

  This controls the transparency of the panel when a mouse pointer is not hovering over it. Ranges from 0 (fully transparent) and 100 (fully opaque). All panel plugins will be affected by this setting.

## Items

This shows the items that are placed on the currently selected panel. In case items are hard to move or edit on the panel using the right-click menu, this tab allows you to move, add, remove and access the preferences of the items on the panel.

This tab contains a row of buttons that allow you to manipulate the items on the panel.

With the up and down buttons you can move the currently selected item in the panel.

The add button opens the add new items dialog. With the remove button you can remove the currently selected item from the panel.

The preferences and about buttons are only active if the plugin support these features. It will open the selected items' settings.

Only limition in this dialog, compared to mouse handling, is that you cannot move items between panels and access custom menu items a plugin can add in the item menu.

## Further Reading

More About

- Panel

See Also

- Add New Plugins — Add new plugins to the Xfce Panel